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DODGERS: 'We all felt this was the right time,' Mattingly says

DODGERS: 'We all felt this was the right time,' Mattingly says

Don Mattingly took the Dodgers to three consecutive playoff berths, but in discussions with president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and GM Farhan Zaidi, they all agreed it was time for the manager to go.

LOS ANGELES – Over the years, baseball managers have lost their jobs over philosophical differences, organizational decisions or any number of strategic blunders.

Don Mattingly might be the first manager left without a job as a result of “an organic dialogue” that “naturally evolved” to a “mutual decision.”

Aggressively presented as an “amicable” parting of the ways, the only manager in Dodgers history to lead the team to three consecutive playoff berths – and the only manager in baseball history who led a team with a $300 million payroll and failed to win a postseason series – is out.

As has so often been the case since the front office overhaul a year ago, the Dodgers did the expected – but not in a predictable manner. Mattingly’s five-year tenure as Dodgers manager ended with a press release announcing he was “not returning” in 2016 despite having one year left on his contract.

The news conference that followed Thursday afternoon was an exercise in talking-point precision as Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and GM Farhan Zaidi did everything they could to discourage the use of words such as “fired” or “resigned” while offering little in their place.

“This is an unusual situation and something that is out of the ordinary,” Friedman said. “It’s not a real clear answer. It’s not like we went into those meetings thinking ‘We have to make a change.’ Then it’s an easier question to answer.

“Like everyone, there’s strengths and there’s things and challenges to work on. But it was much more a result of the conversation and the back and forth than it was about any one specific thing. It doesn’t do any good to get into what I feel are his strengths and any constructive feedback we would have given. ... It didn’t play a role in it, in us sitting here right now.”

Friedman insisted Mattingly’s fate was not tied to the outcome of the NLDS, which the Dodgers lost in five games to the New York Mets. In fact, despite the overwhelming expectation outside the organization that the loss to the Mets would cost Mattingly his job, Friedman said when he began off-season meetings with Mattingly last Friday “we expected him to be our manager in 2016 and my guess is and I’m almost positive about this ... I think that was his thought process also.”

That feeling survived through the weekend and was still the consensus as late as Monday afternoon, just before Mattingly left Los Angeles and returned to his home in Indiana. The two sides had even discussed some type of contract commitment beyond 2016. After managing the 2013 season in the final year of his contract, Mattingly had publicly made it clear he did not want to spend another season as a “lame-duck” manager.

Mattingly said Thursday he was “not concerned with that” and it didn’t lead to his … conscious uncoupling from the Dodgers.

“If you’re trying to say, ‘Did we push a piece of paper across the table that he turned down?’ The answer is No. We never got to that point,” Zaidi said of the extension talks. “There’s going to be a desire to label this. Did he resign? Was he let go?

“Frankly I’ve had my own level of cynicism when you hear about people mutually parting ways. But we can sit up here with all sincerity and say that’s how it evolved.”

That evolution had reached a tipping point by the time the two sides parted company Monday. Three days later, neither side could be specific about what changed.

“This was a mutual decision. … It became a mutual decision,” Mattingly said. “It just became clear that we all felt this was the right time, the best thing for both parties.”

Friedman and Zaidi offered no criticism of Mattingly. Instead, they praised his work ethic, his willingness to accept analytical input and his handling of the clubhouse.

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